Warrens

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A strange underground realm inhabited almost entirely by Goblins.<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Warrens</default></title>

<image source="image"></image> <header>Basic Information</header> <image source="map"></image> <label>Type</label> <label>Location</label> <label>Inhabitants</label> <label>First Appearance</label> </infobox>

Description

It has been described as "where the foulest mud of humanity settles into puddles".<ref>If the Abyss is where the physical goes to be ground down into grim scraps, the Ruins where immaterial ghosts and incarnate things are reduced back down to spirit-stuff, the Warrens where the foulest mud of humanity settles into puddles, and the Courts where dreams go to die, then the Paths exist as the shores of all these realms, where Oblivion, not water, lap at the banks. - Spell Notes #2</ref> Smelly and dangerous.<ref name=":0">There were ways to use practice to go places.  Trips into the Spirit World, emerging elsewhere in the world, if one’s spirit was strong enough to make the trip swift.  Trips through the Warrens, if one could hold their nose and endure the danger. - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.z</ref> As the name suggests, they seem to be mostly tunnels.<ref name=":1">Gashwad slipped through the fence on the other side, and he was moving kind of like Avery did, like every time Lucy looked away and looked back, he’d found ways to skip ahead.

[...]

Gashwad kept skipping ahead.  He was lying in wait now.

“How’s he moving like that!?” Lucy called out.

"There’s little paths and tunnels, if you’re tuned into the Warrens,”

Avery said.  “The place goblins come from.  Snowdrop showed me some.  

Gash- gash seems to know most of them!” - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.8</ref><ref>They were tugged along.  Into a darkness beneath a tree, framed by the roadside trash.

The ground was wet, smelled like the occupants of this hole had used it as a washroom and it had mixed with the mud, and the dirt smudged in around them.

“My nice top, too,” Lucy complained.

“I dressed for messier work,” Verona said.

“Great for you.”

Avery remained silent.  A lot of her stuff was grass-stained anyway.

The tunnel was claustrophobic.  Water dripped from above, even though it wasn’t raining before.

Snowdrop tugged them through the winding confines, where some of the tunnels were so narrow that Avery had to slide down feet first and pray she wouldn’t get stuck.

They seemed to follow the drips, which got more frequent.  Lucy flipped up her hood.

They emerged into darkness.  Into rain. - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.9 </ref> There are some larger caves where goblins live in ramshackle towns, filled with shacks and piles of trash, some of it on fire for lighting.<ref>She led him down a corridor that had a bit less of the cardboard, more rock, moist with algae and mucus-like slime.  They had to duck low to get through an area and reach a new spot.  Shacks and piles of trash that might have been living spots were clustered in the cave interior, lit by burning piles of filth.  Goblins of nearly every conceivable shape and size were standing, fighting, eating, sleeping, and fucking just about everywhere.  They ranged from the human-sized like Deedee to mouse-sized, some with human-like features, some with beaks, muzzles, or masks.  All, Ben decided, looked like they had a story.

[...]

Deedee indicated a gate in the alley, then led him through it and out onto what looked like an outdoor patio.  In another circumstance, it might have looked like someone with a concrete backyard behind their trailer had laid out some furniture to have a communal smoking spot.  Here, in the goblin underground, it seemed almost like a nice place.  The denizens, at least, seemed to be treating it as such.
A bar that looked like it was made of driftwood, several pieces of disparate furniture and picnic tables strewn about, bounded on three sides by larger buildings or rock faces, the fourth side a chain link fence that overlooked a steep drop to a chasm.

- (Third) Poke </ref>

It's one of those realms that can overlap with or mirror the material world to an extent.<ref>“It was Kennet, just… stepping in a direction that mortal feet cannot usually step.  Adjacent.”

“How many places are adjacent to Kennet?” Lucy asked.  “Or types of places?”

Maricica smiled.  “A good number.  Some are adjacent in a way that would put them outside Kennet, such as the Abyss or the Courts, and some

are far, far away, like the Paths.  That said, the spirit world, the 

ruins, the basest parts of the warrens are adjacent in…”

“In a way that would put them technically inside Kennet?” Lucy asked.

“Yes.”

- excerpt from Stolen Away 2.3 </ref> Like many realms, some parts of the mundane world are closer to them than others, and there are places where they overlap or have portals into other realms.<ref>“Ye can get anywhere, walkin’ on foot.  Even tha Paths, if ye walk long enough.  Some places are closer to tha Warrens, tha Abyss, or tha spirit.  Tha toll isn’t so heavy expensive if tha way’s shorter.  Elsewise, ye pay the toll direct.  Use a wee bit of spirit to open up the spirit ways.”

[...]

“If ye need to go ta tha Warrens where the goblins deal with other goblins, ye’ll want to come this way [in the Spirit World] an’ turn left, go tha’ way.  I’m not sure why ye would want ta, especially without a guide, but I’m telling ye now.”

There was a bit of collapsed structure, and it looked like part of the collapse was over a murky stairwell.

- excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6

- excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6 </ref>

Small, hidden portals into the Warrens can be found wherever there are goblins if you know how.<ref name=":2">“It’s fast,” she said.  “You can go down anywhere there’s enough goblins for there to be a warren-hole, get down deep enough you get a little abyss-y and time and distance don’t make any fuckin’ sense, head back on up.  Fucking bam, crossed half the continent.” - (Third) Poke </ref> Warren holes can spread throughout a neglected area and "reach critical mass" if the local goblin population goes unchecked.<ref>If I got kicked out, no high school education or anything, then I’d probably end up a goblin exterminator. [...] It’s part of the corking up of the warren holes.  They pop up, spread through the nearby area, usually in the worst parts of town, then

after they reach critical mass, they start spreading out.  If you wait 

until they start spreading out, it’s almost too late.  You’ll end up having to seal a building perimeter, burn it down with the goblins still

inside, then seal it again.  - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.6</ref>

Uses

• Some goblins will be willing to trade for mundane objects, mainly technology or personal things they can study to target the owners.<ref>I grab what I can that I think I can trade at the Warrens.  Radios,

laptops, phones.  Some goblins like to study people, so they can do stuff specific to those people.  Family albums, purses, bits of clothing. - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.7</ref>

• Trips through the Warrens, short or long, are often shorter than travelling the same distance in the mundane world.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

Residents

Although mainly associated with Goblins, like any realm it is home to a variety of residents;<ref>The Warrens – Goblin realm, day trips, non-Goblin denizens of the Warrens. - 4.1 Bonus Material: BHI Information Packet</ref> Bogeymen such as the Milkmaid show up,<ref>A gaggle of goblins stood at the fence, peering down.  An Other was looking down as well, a woman with a calf’s hide draped over her head like a hood, horns resting near her brow, with a stained dress that reached her bare feet.  The gaggle gave her a wide berth.  Bogeyman, Ben was pretty sure.  There was a way of telling, sometimes: the stains on the woman’s dress and skin had a way of moving like dark clouds against the sky might.  Blooming, widening, taking different shapes.
[...]
“And that gal over there with the cow hat, that’s the Milkmaid.  She’s a pal too-”

Ben looked at the bogeyman with the calf skin draping her head, who looked back at him with dead eyes.

“-Got the idea for the milk for Stray Baby from her.” - (Third) Poke</ref> feral Dog Meats, Fleshmonglers, and of course the ever present humans.<ref>The little goblin screamed, shrill.  The bartender, a human with more piercings than seemed sensible, didn’t even flinch, and the dice game at the other table went on uninterrupted. - (Third) Poke</ref>

Points of Interest

• Arenas in the Warrens host Goblin Game, a sick reality TV show, featuring captured humans with terrible Karma. Those foolish enough to help are trapped in the game themselves by the karmic backlash. Space is bent so that multiple locations can watch it live.<ref>(Third) Poke</ref>
• Sage territories - Any place where a goblin sage, a leader that goblins look to, has set up shop and can adjudicate over an area.
• Fight Street = A place where duels can be fought<ref>“Guilherme,” Lucy said. “You once told me that there were places in the Faerie, that, if you wanted to fight, it had to be a declared duel.”
  
  “There are.”
  
  “And that’s a point of Law?”
  
  “It is, in a fashion. A popular thing in High Spring and High Summer.”
  
  “Toadswallow? In the Warrens?”
  
  “Nothing so formal.”
  
  “Bubbleyum told me about fight streets.”
  
  “Fuck yeah!” America cheered. “Fight street!”
  
  “You’re on the money,” Toadswallow said. - Excerpt from Hard Pass 22.2</ref>

References

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